Guess what? I was completely bored today. Literally, I went and practiced Calligraphy by myself for an hour and a half because I felt like I had nothing else to do. Didn't even think about writing this.
Man.
Well, I actually did start writing this thing last Friday, but then I went to Beijing to see my family for the last time for 2 1/2 months and figured it could wait another week. It was kind of a failed surprise. Really, I shouldn't have told any of them that I was coming, but I kind of had to have at least one person on the inside, so I told Ellyn and then Dad offered to pay me and then I felt too bad about lying to Mom. I'm not so good at keeping a secret when it doesn't really need to be kept. Sorry, Ellyn.
Um. Before I jump to all of that, I guess I should start with two weeks ago, on Monday, November 7th.
The Chinese government sent a group of officials for the annual sanitary check of the school, so first of all Wei Sifu asked us in the morning to bring all of our clothes inside, which were hanging out on the lines. This sucked for me because I had just barely done my laundry on Sunday night, so some of my stuff was still just a bit damp. I should really get in the habit of starting my laundry at the beginning of the day instead of the evening.
Anyway, it was rather interesting how the inspection was set up. Apparently they had representatives from every department (whatever that means), and I think there were about… twenty total. They drove up in their sleek black cars and we all made the old joke about the Chinese Mafia coming to 'ask' Wei Sifu for payment. Ha. Ha. Really, it was all made to look rather intimidating, with the guys in black suits walking around with serious faces. More than anything, it was kind of distracting to see people drive up in cars and watch us train and sometimes go in our rooms. Monday morning is also inspection day, so we had gotten everything tidied up anyway, so I wasn't too self-conscious when Arianne said they had looked at our room. They were gone by the end of the morning, and I guess we passed the check because the school's still here. :)
A few days later, Wei Sifu again lined us up together to tell us that the real reason the Chinese government had sent so many people to inspect was that they had gotten word that people from our school had been staying out late into the night and visiting inappropriate establishments. Awkward. They're going to crack down more on curfew, which I'm kind of happy about because it's pretty annoying to hear people talking outside of your door in the middle of the night when you're trying to sleep.
The rest of the training days passed without any incident. My Bagua form is going well! For a while I didn't see get how it looked like airbending, but some of the newer moves are totally air blasts. And then I re-watched some Avatar:TLA episodes and it's really cool to see Aang do airbending and recognize it as a Bagua move.
Thurrrrsday, one of the guys upstairs is leaving for a month, so I asked if I could keep his piano in my room while he's gone. He said sure, so now I've got a pretty dinky 6-octave electric piano in my room that only has Chinese writing on it to tell you what the buttons mean. But it's a piano! And I snagged some piano music from my family while I was in Beijing, so now I have something to play. Now I have no excuse to let myself continue sucking at sight-reading.
And then Friday came! I'll defer to my personal journal for a complete rendition of my weekend in Beijing.
Friday was a little sad because two of the guys in my class left the School, both of whom have been here nearly the whole time I have. They were the biggest talkers and cheeriest voices, so training since they left has been weirdly quiet. One of them left during the first class, which was Shaolin basics/forms. I worked on my staff form, which I haven't quite found the heart of yet. Like, when you start learning a form you kind of feel like "why am I doing this" and you can't quite get yourself to put power into it. Some forms, if they're short enough or if you don't work on them for long enough, always stay that way. But if you really get into a form, then suddenly you feel like the coolest person ever, and five moves in, your adrenalin goes up and you might as well be flying. That's how I feel about my sword form. Doing that form while listening to Swan Lake is amazing.
Anyway, second lesson was Power Stretching, and that always sucks while you're doing it, but it's sort of a fun class because you somehow end up laughing at people's pain. But it's not really that funny when it's you. Although Sifu insists that he doesn't really like it, I'm pretty sure that's his favorite class.
Near the end of class, Camilla ran in to tell me that my jacket was ringing, which I left outside. WANNA KNOW WHY? It was my cell phone alarm, set for 11:11 on 11/11/11. The Ultimate Wishing Minute. I didn't make a wish. In my excitement, I forgot to. Oh well.
Right after class I went and changed because I would be leaving at 1:30 for a 2:30 train (Well, 2:37. Whatever). So I got to hang around looking cute, which is fun to do every now and then because I usually really don't look cute whilst learning Kung Fu. No one does. Especially when one wears the same shirt for an entire month. Please change your clothes, guys.
The train ride was as boring as expected. Listened to Mika and drew the whole time, basically. Ellyn met me at the Subway station downstairs, and the timing actually worked out perfectly because she called me when she got off the train and I had just gotten off the escalator. Not exactly hard to spot a foreign face. And it was lovely to see hers. <3 We went to Wangfujing (which is a subway stop! How convenient, right?) and Ellyn and I got cheap matching pocketwatches.
Anyway, to summarize, we met my parents and a bunch of their China Friends at a restaurant (me still dragging my suitcase) and we had a lovely dinner. I showed off some Tai Chi, which they were quite impressed with, and we managed to get a taxi home.
After hanging out with a barely-conscious Daniel for a little while and talking to my family, I stayed up until 3:30 watching Downton Abbey.
Saturday, November 12th.
Because I've already seen the Beijing Sights (well, except Bei Hai Park, I guess. Oh well.), we decided to just do some shopping. Our plan was to hit the Yashow Market and later the Dirt Market (Panjiayuan). Because it was my family's last Saturday, the day wasn't completely about me, but it was totally fine because I wanted to buy stuff, too. My favorite buy was the two warm hats I got which are pretty awesome. One's red with black pom poms and the other's teal with grey pom poms. I fully plan to train in them during the winter.
After we spent nearly all our money, we went back to Oakwood to try to figure out what our next plan of action was. We sort of just hung out for a while and they showed me a series called "Sing-Off", which is sort of like "So You Think You Can Dance", except that the competitors are groups of professional a'cappella groups. We're especially interested in it this season because Vocal Point from BYU is competing.
So, we hung out at the apartment for a while and then went back out to go to the Dirt Market, which I really liked. I like that market. You just don't get bored, you know? It's pretty much outside, and they sell a lot of souvenir-type things. Calligraphy, jewelry, shadow puppets (which are gorgeous, by the way), bags, more jewelry, and then there's a whole section where they sell things like porcelain and big rocks and 'old coins' and figurines. And another section where they sell books, which are all in Chinese. On the way to the Dirt Market there were just people sitting along the sidewalk with things to sell spread out on blankets or towels or whatever, and we actually got a few things from them, too.
The Dirt Market seems to close at around 5:00 (though it might just be 'dusk' that it closes), so we left as the stall keepers were wheeling out their wares on flatbed bicycles stacked several feet high. Then on the way to the nearby subway stop (Jinsong), we decided to stop for dinner at a random place. That could've been better. My vote was to eat some of the roasted sweet potatoes they sell on the street. Those are so good. I wonder if they have them in Qufu…?
A few subway stops and a taxi ride later, we got back to our apartment and hung out, singing from the Broadway Book and playing games. When it was late enough at night that Mom was done accompanying us on the piano, I stayed up and watched three episodes of Merlin.
Sunday, November 13th
For church I borrowed one of Ellyn's cute new dresses and wore the black boots and the grey coat that Ellyn bought that I'm taking from her. It's really cool that we're allowed to have the church in China at all. There are some really strict rules surrounding it, though. Even though China allows people to believe whatever they want, we're not allowed to proselyte to Chinese Nationals. But even suckier than that, when a Chinese National gets baptized outside of China and comes back… they can go to church, but we're not allowed to have any contact whatsoever with them.
But anyway, I went to church part of the time with my family and part of the time to the Virtual Branch. Because we're so spread out, they've set it up so that saints across China can call into a phone line and have church that way. Awesome, right? I got to chat a bit with the Virtual Branch President's wife, so that was great. Plus, I got cookies.
After church we had the usual hassle of getting a taxi home, but it worked out in the end (as usual) and we went home and had dinner. Mom's figured out an easy meal to make in China, that includes chopped vegetables and meat and curry mix, stewed together, all over rice. It's making me hungry to think of it.
Um, yeah. So we had dinner and then I packed my bag full of Christmas presents. But then an hour before I went I was like, "I wish my suitcase was bigger…" and we switched out my smaller blue suitcase for a medium blue suitcase and I am well pleased with it.
Ellyn was a dear and accompanied me on the long taxi ride to the train station. Then I had another 3-hour speedtrain ride to Qufu. Those train rides are sort of like being transported between two very different universes: my life with my family and my life in Qufu. If you look out the window and watch the darkness pass by, it all feels kind of eerie. Especially when you pull into a platform with white columns standing stark against the blackness of the night, and the stillness of the white tiled floor is suddenly interrupted by a group of Chinese people streaming towards the escalators. And then you feel annoyed because you're not one of them and you have another hour and a half to go.
Remember last time, when I got surrounded by a bunch of taxi drivers and called Joy in a panic? Well, that didn't happen this time. Instead, I went with the first guy who motioned to me and had a really silent taxi ride back to the school. Like, super silent. Sometimes a Chinese taxi driver guy will try to talk to me, which is annoying if he talks too much because I really don't speak Chinese and it ends up just getting me flustered and saying sarcastic things in English (but with a smile on my face so he doesn't suspect) which he doesn't understand. Sometimes the taxi driver will hit it right on the nail and ask the few questions that I know how to answer and then shuts his mouth (the type I like best). And then sometimes he won't speak at all and gets me home as fast as possible so he can go home himself (the type that feels like at any moment they're going to pull over and shoot me).
As an interesting side note, Chinese people call the taxi drivers "Shifu", pronounced in the same way you say "Sifu", as in "Master"… but with different characters, I assume. *shrugs*
Coming back to the universe where I just train all day was kind of weird, but not as weird as the time when I was out of it for two weeks, instead of this time's two days. While I was gone they decided to get another dog-- a puppy. We didn't even need one dog, and now we have three. Well, technically one of them (Gremlin) belongs to Arianne, and she's okay. But Dodo, Wei Sifu's dog, is a critter that is well-hated by those of us who have woken up to her barking in the middle of the night, every night, for a week straight. Actually, she's been pretty good about not doing that lately, but for me the resentment hasn't quite disappeared. Especially since on more than one occasion I was the one to finally run out and yell at her, shoe in hand. But the new puppy ("Wang Wang"? "Wa Wa"?) hasn't really learned how to bark yet, and besides that is pretty cute, so there's hope for him yet. His name in Chinese means "Everything Gets Better and Better". Maybe that's a subtle way of saying that Dodo's dying?
It's been overcast and/or rainy for most of the week, so my laundry got rained on and some of the classes were spent on the porch or in the training hall. Or just in the rain. Turns out, it's not very easy to do a staff form when you're swinging around a slippery staff. With all of the overcast skies happening, it sort of felt like Seattle. Like home. I hate to say 'training was as usual', but it kind of was. Yeah. No special stories to tell. Except that for conditioning, I had the pleasure of letting Sifu be the one to pound on my arm. Huh. Not sure why I let him do that.
Today, the most exciting thing I did was go into town for an hour to get me some fruit, yo. They don't serve fruit at the mealtimes, so I have this weird (and irrational) feeling that I'll, like, get scurvy if I don't start eating some oranges between meals. But when I got on the bus into town, I realized that I had just barely enough money to feel comfortable shopping and getting home (the equivalent of about 20 bucks, tops), so I didn't dally around town and, amazingly, didn't end up getting any crazy Chinese snacks. Funny thing: usually if you bring something home, you're going to eat it. So if you don't buy chips or chocolate, chances are you're not going to eat chips or chocolate. That's kind of the nice thing about living on your own. If you don't buy it, junk food doesn't just magically appear in your cupboard (well, I don't actually have a cupboard, but you get the idea).
Like I talked about before, I kind of wiled away the day… I don't feel like I wasted time, exactly, but I didn't even think about my blog until I checked my e-mail and saw Ellyn had sent out her latest China Chronicles. So I'd like to dedicate this one to her. Is that weird? .._
Before I conclude my update, I'd like to apologize to my lovely Aunt Heather, who e-mailed me back to ask me questions about the School. Between my bad internet connection and overall laziness, I didn't end up e-mailing her back personally. I shall now answer her questions here. All of you, by the way, are encouraged to also send me questions.
Are you taking any video at your school? The answer is yes, but not enough. I got a video of my Sifu doing the whole staff form, which I thought looked awesome. But then he watched it too and said it wasn't any good. I guess he'd know better than me? Haha. I've also nabbed some of Arianne's videos of the Sifus doing different forms, and like, breaking bricks on their heads. On Tuesday, actually, I took a little bit of video of the Jumps and Rolls class, hoping to catch Sifu doing a spontaneous backflip. Next time I'll just ask him straight out to let me film him doing some aerial tricks.
So what does this whole adventure mean? Are you going to become an acupuncturist? Are you going to study Mandarin in college? Will you spend 10 years becoming a Kung Fu Master and demand we call you Sifu Cardon?... or is it Sifu Sarah? Inquiring minds want to know.
Although the things I'm learning here are awesome, I think the main point of this whole adventure for me is learning how to grow up. John Steinbeck said in one of his short stories (I hope I'm getting this right), "a boy becomes a man when a man is needed". Up until this point, I haven't really needed to not be a child, because I was (and still sort of am) depending on my parents to tell me what to do, what to eat, and discipline. I think that if I had gone straight to college still in the frame of mind that it was up to my parents to look after my grades, etc. I wouldn't have done so well. But because the life here is so different from life in America, it gives me a whole different perspective on what kind of control I have over my own life. Like, because the internet connection's bad I don't spend a lot of time surfing it and instead go straight to my e-mail where the important people relationships are. Because six hours of the day are dedicated to exercise, I'm not put off by the fact that I'll sometimes have to take more than one shower a day. Because I don't feel like I have the spare money (even though I kind of do), I don't go out and buy junk food and therefore keep myself healthy. Ming bai ma? (Understand?)
Haha, I'll probably not become an acupuncturist, though those pressure points are super interesting. I've certainly gained an appreciation for Traditional Chinese Medicine! As for Mandarin, I totally want to study it in college. I hope to someday come back to China (maybe to teach English? Literally, anyone who speaks English can be an English teacher here. They kind of just want Westerners for the novelty of it.), and when I do come back I want to understand what everyone's saying, goshdarnit. I think that's what I miss about America the most: being able to eavesdrop on people's conversations whether they like it or not. Of course, the flip side is that here you can talk in English without fear of people understanding you (probably).
If I could continue doing Tai Chi and/or Bagua, I would be well pleased. But I don't quite think the life of a Kung Fu Master is right for me ;). If I did, it would actually be "Cardon Sifu", except that you would use my Chinese name, making it "Zhang Sifu". Because you asked, I insist that you call me that from now on.
Thanks for asking questions, Heather! You're awesome and I love you.
And there we shall conclude.
The picture, by the way, is of me, my Sifu, and Nellie, one of the translators. Because I'm probably destined to forever be the only girl in my class, she stood in as my partner for a "Qinan" session, which is sort of like takedowns but is mostly learning how to put people in uncomfortable holds.
Next weekend a large group of us are going to Dengfeng, where the Shaolin Temple is! So you shall hear more about that on the next installment of
SOMEWHAT SHAOLIN
No comments:
Post a Comment